We live in a digital world where we are surrounded by screens 24/7 whether we like it or not. Perhaps this is why, in the past couple of years, marketers have adopted video marketing to reach their target audience.
These days, people would rather watch a video about your product or service than to read about it. Lots of people on social media spend a significant portion of their time viewing videos.
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The demand for videos is so much that even LinkedIn that has traditionally been a text-based social network is now adopting videos.
As a business owner, how can you start using videos? There are two ways you can go about it:
- If you don’t want to go through all the hassles of producing your videos, you can outsource it to professionals.
- Another way to go about it (especially for those who don’t mind investing the time and resources needed) is to do it yourself.
For those who choose to do it themselves, they are initially sceptical about how to start. That’s why I’m writing this article on how you can start using video marketing to grow your business.
Proceed with Caution
You don’t need to create videos on par with a Steven Spielberg production. You need a good quality video to communicate your message.
If your first attempt is crap, then don’t publish it. If your first attempt creating a video is just ‘okay,‘ go ahead and post it. With practice, you can only get better.
You’ll need to dedicate resources to creating your videos. At the very least, you’ll need a good smartphone.
If you’re going to create animation videos, then you’ll need the right software. But the fancier your software, the more money it’ll cost.
Want to make live shot videos instead? If you have the money to splurge, then you can go ahead to get the best gear you can afford.
But if you’re on a tight budget, forget about getting an expensive recording studio and use your office or business location instead.
The most important thing is to have a particular location (think office or conference room) dedicated to producing your videos.
It’s also essential that your chosen location has good natural lighting. So think of a place with a window. Focus on making your videos entertaining and informative.
To be on the safe side, you can start by converting your existing content into video format. Converting current material into video format is what I often do.
If for instance, you have an article, infographic or powerpoint slide that has done well with your audience, you can convert that into a video.
You'll need to dedicate resources to creating your videos. At the very least you'll need a good smartphone. Click To TweetTest Your Initial Results
Using the analytics tools on your website or chosen social channels, test to see how your audience has engaged with your first videos.
If the feedback you get from your target audience is right, then proceed to create more videos following the same format.
But if the feedback is negative, don’t despair. Find out from your audience the type of videos they want to get from you and do accordingly.
Adopt Best Practices
Don’t focus on your products or services. Show the people behind the brand. Show your team.
Yes, this can seem a bit frightening, especially for people (like me) who don’t like to be in front of the camera. But with time it’ll get comfortable.
Also, keep your videos short and straight to the point. Be informative and entertaining. People these days have short attention spans, so keep your videos short and sweet. ‘Less is more‘ should be your watchword when it comes to creating videos.
Always have a Call-to-Action at the end, i.e. let your viewers know what action they should take after viewing your video.
Do you want them to visit your website/blog, to download your app, to buy your product or service, to call or contact you to learn more, to subscribe to your newsletter, follow your social media channels, etc.?
Tell your audience what you want them to do. Don’t assume that your audience will know.
Upload your videos directly to your various social networks that allow videos. But don’t rely on your YouTube channel alone as a hub for your videos.
If your hosting account has the resources and permits it, you can also upload your videos directly to your website so that you can have better control over its storage.
Promote Your Videos
Just uploading your videos to your website, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, etc. is not enough.
You’ve spent a considerable amount of time and resources, creating your video. Therefore, it’s only natural that you’d want to get the best ROI out of it.
To do so, you need to shell out a few bucks to pay the relevant platforms to promote your videos. You also need to take it a step further and recruit the right social media influencers to help boost your videos.
Genuine social media influencers in your niche already have an engaged audience of followers, and they can influence their followers into buying your brand. Doing this will take you into the realm of influencer marketing.
Measuring Your Performance
How will you measure the performance of your videos? Is it by viewership, reach, engagement, website traffic, etc.?
As you have identified different KPI’s, you use in measuring your written content you also need to define KPI’s you’ll use to measure the performance of your videos.
The last thing you want to do is to invest time and resources in creating videos without getting any tangible results.
Measuring your performance is especially important for B2B brands who may not always be able to produce videos talking about their brand.
They have to rely on producing videos that are unrelated to their brands, but that can still be used to captivate their audience and direct them back to their brand at the end of the day.
Next Steps to Take on Video Marketing
Now you know how to start using video marketing to grow your business. The next thing is to determine the type of video content to produce. We will discuss the various types of video content in the following article.
Like I mentioned before, if you don’t want to go through all these hassles, you can outsource your video marketing to us.
Feel free to contact me if you have any questions or queries about video marketing. I’ll be glad to help. Catch you later.
Related Article(s)
- The Best Video Ad Networks for Small Publishers
- Reasons You Should Be Talking About B2B Social Networks
- Digital Marketing Archives
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